Understanding Google My Business

Understanding Google My Business

It can be quite a task keeping up with all the incarnations Google goes through with their local products. Google Maps, Places, Google+ Local, and now, Google My Business. Before you go running away, throwing up your hands, let me just tell you that it’s not bad at all.

Promoted by Google as a way for local merchants and service providers to create and manage listings all in one simple to use platform, they appear to have accomplished exactly that!

Google sees this as a way to centralize all your listings that have anything to go with Google; search, maps, Google+ and Local and have them all close at hand for easy access and management. Let’s see what this new platform has to offer, and why we think it can work for you.

GMB enables you to easily update your information from one place – Once you claim your listing on Google My Business, you’ll get to update anything you wish regarding your business or online presence. You also have the ability to add pictures and even virtual tours if you want, thus making it easy for people to get a real idea about your place.

Connect with your customers through Google+ – You can talk to fans and customers directly through your company Google+ page, sharing content, and news. You can also start and conduct a Hangout on Air.

Manage customer reviews – This one is the most talked about feature: being able to see, respond and manage reviews on Google from one centralized location. Make sure you have a plan for handling your customer’s reviews, good or bad, and make sure anyone who will be posting to this page understands what you want to accomplish.

Run your business on the go – Using the Android and iOS apps, you can access any part of the Google My Business platform wherever you are.

Customer Insights – Another cool feature. GMB shows you a number of useful statistics, such as where your customers are driving from. This can be useful when planning new campaigns. Another plus is that you can easily integrate your Google Analytics account into GMB. This also goes for for Google Adwords.